Inside the Star

U.S. ruling snips Obamacare coverage of birth control

In a controversial 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court high court agreed a major company should not be forced to provide birth control coverage to its workers on the grounds that doing so would violate the religious beliefs of its evangelical Christian owners.

WASHINGTON—Religion over science. Five male justices against their female counterparts. Viagra over contraception. Freedom of corporate worship over women’s access to health care.

Those were just some of the rhetorical salvos flying Monday as Americans began coming to terms with a landmark Supreme Court ruling that snipped a section out of President Barack Obama’s signature health-care law.

In a controversial 5-4 decision, the high court favoured Hobby Lobby, a major U.S.-based arts and crafts retail chain, agreeing the company should not be forced to provide birth control coverage to its 13,000 workers on the grounds that doing so would violate the religious beliefs of its evangelical Christian owners.

“Any suggestion that for-profit corporations are incapable of exercising religion because their purpose is simply to make money flies in the face of modern corporate law,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote, voicing the majority opinion.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg led the dissent, warning against “a decision of startling breadth.” The ruling, said Ginsberg, means that, “commercial enterprises, including corporations, along with partnerships and sole proprietorships, can opt out of any law (except for only tax laws) they judge incompatible with their sincerely held religious beliefs.”

But the overall reaction to the decision broke quickly along partisan lines, hailed by leading conservatives as a victory against government overreach and abhorred by liberals as a blow to the separation of church and state.

The debate extended also to the ruling’s potential impact. In favouring Hobby Lobby and 49 other religiously inspired for-profit corporations that sued the Obama administration, the high court said its decision applied to so-called “closely held” corporations — companies controlled by five or fewer owners.

Though as much as half of the U.S. workforce depends on such companies for its health care, the ruling was not expected to trigger an exodus from contraception coverage since some 85 per cent of large U.S. companies offered birth control prior the onset of Obamacare in U.S. law.

Critics also attacked the Supreme Court ruling on scientific grounds, noting that unlike religious objectors to the law, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not categorize the four contraceptive methods in question as abortifacients.

“Alito and the four other conservative justices on the court were essentially overruling not just an Obamacare regulation, but science,” Mother Jones wrote in an analysis of the ruling.

Others still fretted about the continuing trend of “corporate personhood,” with Monday’s ruling adding a religious dimension to the political freedoms corporations gained following the Supreme Court’s landmark 2010 Citizens United ruling.

Ted Cruz, the Calgary-born Texas senator, hailed what he saw as a “landmark victory for religious liberty. The decision affirms that Americans, contrary to what the Obama administration attempted to impose, have a right to live and work in accordance to their conscience and can’t be forced to surrender their religious freedom once they open a business.”

Hobby Lobby’s health care coverage extends to vasectomies and treatment for erectile dysfunction. The company’s co-founders gave no indication whether those policies would change in the wake of the high court ruling.

“Our family is overjoyed by the Supreme Court’s decision,” said Hobby Lobby co-founder Barbara Green said.

“The court’s decision is a victory, not just for business, but for all who seek to live out their faith. We are grateful to God and to those who have supported us on this difficult journey.”